


A Little Eternity

by Corvina_of_Olympus



Series: We are all made of Stardust [1]
Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Daemons, But There Will Be Fluff I Swear, Daemon Touching, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non Consensual Daemon Touching, Slaine Week, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 00:45:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5723203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvina_of_Olympus/pseuds/Corvina_of_Olympus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is only one being in this world that Slaine trusts.<br/>...until there is another one all of a sudden.</p><p>(Crossover between Aldnoah.Zero and His Dark Materials. My contribution for day 5 of Slaine week on tumblr: AU/Crossover. You don't have to know His Dark Materials to understand it.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Eternity

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this crossover hit me as soon as I saw the prompts for Slaine week. It was there and wouldn't leave me, so I decided that I shall write it!
> 
> For everyone who isn't familiar with the concept of dæmons: they are meant to resemble a part of one's soul and manifest in the shapes of animals. The dæmon of a child can change forms at will, but somewhere during puberty the dæmon of a person "settles" as one animal corresponding to one's personality.  
> Those are the basic facts. For anyone who wants to know more details: there is a rather good Wikipedia article about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A6mon_%28His_Dark_Materials%29
> 
> I'm not a native speaker and I don't have a beta reader, so I apologise for any mistakes. 
> 
> With that out of the way: enjoy reading!

He can feel the comforting, warm presence next to his leg as he watches his life crumble before his eyes. Everything he stood for and everything he fought for is gone. At least the ones loyal to him could be saved.

The moon base sinks in chaos as its only inhabitants stand in silence. 

“It is over” says Slaine and feels like laughing. How ironic that everything he did for the princess because he thought it was the best this way actually was the opposite of what she wanted. 

Voyasha feels her human’s despair, of course she does. She licks Slaine’s hand reassuringly in an attempt to soothe them both.  
Slaine smiles a little. “I don’t even know when it all went wrong. Maybe it was the day Saazbaum explained his view to us, or maybe we were just wrong from the start. There is not much that went right for us, don’t you think so?” His tone is sardonic, and he knows his dæmon doesn’t like it. She looks out of the window again. “Maybe we just were too pessimistic. We should have trusted in Asseylum’s judgement. You always said she was too naïve. Maybe everything is going to work out like she wanted it to”, she replies. 

“Even if it will: we won’t see anything of it.” 

They watch the explosions the fight outside causes. Slaine thinks that they look like beautiful, deadly flowers.

Voyasha is the first one to spot the distant movements with her sharp eyes. “They are returning!” 

He immediately knows what she means and identifies the approaching Kataphrakt as Harklight’s Herschel, followed by his squadron.  
“NO!” he shouts and hits the glass with his fist in vain.  
His dæmon lowers her head. “You underestimated their loyalty…”

 _“Turn around, please! You’re fighting for a dead man!”_  
Slaine sinks on his knees, because it is no use. His companion will sacrifice himself for him. He doesn’t deserve it. Sobbing, he seeks comfort by hugging Voyasha, who whines in return. She had always liked the servant and his German shepherd dæmon. They should have known he would return, even if the battle was hopeless. 

Count Barouhcruz returns too, he notices, and he can’t help but wonder why. He didn’t expect Harklight to disobey his orders and sacrifice his own life for him, yes. But he had been certain that Barouhcruz always chose to fight with the one that would win in his opinion and quit his loyalty as soon as possible if the opposite announced itself. Apparently Slaine had been wrong about that, too.

That doesn’t matter anymore, though; because the orange Kataphrakt is fighting outside and Slaine can’t help but feel that he has to fight this last battle, too. Voyasha follows him to the Tharsis without a word.

~~~

He remembers clinging to his dæmon’s dense fur as the waves carry them to shore. The ocean is cold and the sand is, too; but Slaine finds that he doesn’t care. Voyasha tries to get him to move, but she is injured and exhausted like her human. 

A few moments later Slaine is almost glad about the gun pointing at his head. Voyasha makes a weak attempt to menacingly growl at the person that threatens their life, but she is the only part of him that hasn’t quite given up yet. Slaine smiles at Kaizuka Inaho, their executor. 

~~~

He doesn’t try to resist the prison guards as they lead him to his cell. Voyasha barks and growls, but Slaine quickly tells her to keep silent. She gives him a look that he reads as ‘Do you really think this is fair?’, but he decides to discuss that later. Their cell is clean and sterile. Voyasha hates it, but Slaine only shrugs. “This is what you get as a war criminal.”

He wonders why the guards let him keep the pendant. 

Maybe they actually want him to commit suicide.

~~~

It has been six months since his imprisonment, and Slaine thinks that he’ll never be whole again. The guilt and regret crush down on him anew every day, and a tiny part of him mourns the fact that nobody cares. He tells himself that he deserves this.  
His dæmon lies next to his bed with closed eyes. She warily lifts her head as Slaine unclasps the pendant around his neck and weighs it in his hand before throwing it against the wall.

~~~

Two more months and Slaine wants to die. Some time ago Voyasha would have nipped his hand for even thinking that.

~~~

Voyasha had settled as a husky when Slaine was thirteen. Before that she had always changed into small animals that were easy to hide so that she wouldn’t attract too much attention. This wasn’t possible anymore and the following days became hell for them until people noticed that Voyasha had actually settled.  
Slaine remembers Count Cruhteo’s frown at her form. Dogs were the dæmons of servants and lower classes in Vers society. _“It is only appropriate for Terran scum like you to have your dæmon take such a lowly form.”_ Voyasha nearly snarled at the Count, but Slaine had gripped the ruff of her neck to keep her from doing so. This hadn’t gone unnoticed by Cruhteo and he registered the action with a scowl while the goshawk dæmon on his shoulder glowered at them.  
Their life didn’t get easier after that.

~~~

One year has passed without any visitors besides the prison guards and Slaine has stopped eating the food they bring him. He doesn’t want to die anymore; he just finds that he doesn’t care. Voyasha is curled up in one corner of the room and doesn’t move.

~~~

And then, more than a year after Slaine’s imprisonment, there’s suddenly someone who cares. One afternoon he hears the door of his cell open and then, all of a sudden, Kaizuka Inaho is standing in the room. A raven sits on his shoulder and he remembers how Voyasha struck that same bird with her paw three years ago in Saazbaum’s castle. Kaizuka wears an eyepatch and Slaine easily concludes that’s where his bullet hit him back then. 

He gives the unexpected visitor a lopsided smile. 

“Did you come to finish me off for real this time?”

~~~

Kaizuka didn’t, but he visits again and again without letting Slaine know about his intention. Neither does he want to know it nor care at all. Not anymore. 

He doesn’t speak to Kaizuka again and continues to act apathetically. The other’s dæmon (who never seems to talk for some reason) tries to approach Voyasha sometimes, but she doesn’t react, either. 

It’s ironic that Kaizuka Inaho of all people tries to get a reaction out of him.

~~~

Slaine silently eats his food because apparently his former nemesis doesn’t want him to die after all. Sometimes the brunet talks to him about the situation outside his prison, as if Slaine would want to know anything about it now that he’ll never see that world again. 

Kaizuka brings a chess board to the cell one day and invites Slaine to play. It is one of his good days and Slaine can muster the will to stand up and take a seat at the table, on the other side of the board. He stares at the black pawns and the knights and the king and remembers that he used to hold each of these positions once. He can’t bring himself to play after that. Kaizuka’s raven dæmon flies over to his side to move the pieces for him. 

Kaizuka starts to bring the game with him every time he visits and it always ends with his dæmon taking Slaine’s role.

~~~

His former enemy starts visiting him nearly every day. He brings home-made food with him and observes if Slaine eats it, because he still refuses to do so in the brunet’s absence. He has to admit to himself that Kaizuka’s cooking skills are actually pretty decent. 

The raven dæmon tries to approach Voyasha more often and she starts to respond to it, even if it’s just by weakly growling at her or brushing her off when she comes too close.

~~~

It isn’t long until Slaine realizes that he has started to eat his food even if Kaizuka isn’t there to watch him. Voyasha curls up against him again when he’s trying to sleep in the coldness of his cell.

One day, she wags her tail when Kaizuka and his dæmon come to visit once again. They all notice it and it’s the first time Slaine sees his former nemesis smile.

That is the day when Kaizuka becomes Inaho and the raven dæmon becomes Dariel.

~~~

The days have become more endurable now that Inaho spends time with him and he started wanting to live again. 

Everyone in the prison notices how his condition gets better every day and most of the guards seem to feel indifferent about it. As long as he stays locked away they don’t care whether they guard a suicidal mess of a man or a withdrawn, but polite man who is fine with his fate. 

Not everyone seems to think like this, though. He recognises the angry glares from those who hate him for his past actions and the aggressive behaviour of their dæmons. Voyasha tries not to react to their provocations, but she complains when they have left and she and Slaine are alone again. He reminds her to stay quiet and calm, because they are prisoners and he doesn’t want to fuel their animosity. 

They usually chat about nicer topics, though. Voyasha often talks about Dariel when Inaho and said dæmon aren’t there, and how she is friendly even though she never seems to talk. Slaine and Voyasha agree on the fact that this is just another sign for how weird Inaho is.

Slaine realises that his conversations with Voyasha are one of the things he subconsciously missed the most during the last year. Both of them had grown unresponsive and tired of the world. They were two parts of one being, after all.

They are thankful of Inaho who helped them by simply caring, but they still refrain from trusting him and Dariel completely. They still don’t know what his ulterior motive is.

~~~

It is winter when a guard with a ratel dæmon enters their cell to bring their food. They know that it is winter because Inaho told them. They can’t remember the last time they have seen snow.

It quickly becomes clear to them that the man is one of the hateful ones; in fact they both figure it out as soon as they see the hissing ratel at his side. Voyasha tenses and gets ready to defend them both, but Slaine holds her back and tries not to pay attention to the way the guard slams the tray down on the desk. 

“So you are Slaine Saazbaum Troyard, the one who’s responsible for the war? I can’t believe they waste food on you here.”

Slaine ignores him and gives Voyasha a warning look to keep her from attacking the ratel dæmon. The guard obviously doesn’t like being ignored and the situation escalates faster than Slaine could predict. In the next moment the two dæmons are at each other’s throat, but Slaine only notices it marginally because the man has started to strangle him. He fights against the hold and manages to free himself after a few seconds. He nearly feels thankful for Lord Cruhteo’s strict training back in the time when Voyasha was still able to be a mouse.

Now that he has freed himself he notices that the ratel has been overpowered by the husky and that Voyasha’s teeth are threateningly close to the other dæmon’s throat. Slaine wants to call her back because this is enough, but the guard reacts faster. He forgets about Slaine who holds his throat, leaps over to the two dæmons and nearly rips Voyasha off his own dæmon.

He _touches_ Voyasha.  
Slaine sinks to his knees in shock, suddenly feeling weak and vulnerable. He dimly realises that he’s crying because his view is blurry and he sees the guard holding Voyasha at the ruff of her neck through a veil of tears. _He touches Voyasha. His soul. You don’t touch a dæmon. It’s wrong. It’s sick._  
The feeling of vulnerability nearly crushes him, because someone is violating his privacy in the worst way possible… He reaches out to Voyasha, but it’s all in vain and he feels so _helpless._

Suddenly the heavy feeling in his chest is gone and Voyasha runs over to him, free and frantic. She’s shivering, too, but she licks his tears away to calm him down and he hugs her, happy to have her back.

He hears a familiar voice and looks up to see Inaho who is restraining the guard and Dariel who seems to be threatening the ratel with her claws. Slaine remembers that it is the time that Inaho usually visits, and he feels thankful and angry at the same time. He is thankful to Inaho who, by the looks of it, saved Voyasha and him from the hostile guard, but he is also angry at himself for showing anyone weakness like that.

He now knows why touching another person’s dæmon is the biggest taboo of their society. Count Cruhteo never dared to go that far, not even that time he tortured Slaine. Everyone respects this one rule.

 _“That beast tried to kill Ganetha!”_ he hears the guard shout as he is led away by other members of the prison staff. 

Inaho looks at Slaine, but he doesn’t look back. 

“I want to be left alone”, he says calmly while clutching Voyasha to his chest. Inaho and Dariel obey and leave.

~~~

“The guard has to face a charge by the military court”, Inaho informs him a few days later when Slaine allows him to see him again. It’s not like he could actually forbid him to visit, but Inaho seems to respect it, anyway. 

“Good”, he answers and goes quiet again. They play their daily game of chess in silence.

~~~

Slaine can’t forget the vulnerability and weakness, but he seemingly can’t reject Inaho, either. He grudgingly comes to the conclusion that he needs the stoic brunet.  
One day he can’t handle the feelings he bottled up since the assault anymore and cries against the other’s chest. He has already shown him his weakness, so it doesn’t matter anymore.  
Inaho stays until late in the evening and when he wants to leave Voyasha is curled up around Dariel while both are peacefully sleeping.  
He stays the night, too. 

~~~

The strangest thing Slaine has ever lived to see happens two days after that. Inaho wears a gentle smile on his face when he visits him again, and that alone is strange enough. He asks for the reason, and Inaho looks at him with an unreadable expression before smiling again:  
“Your sentence has been shortened.” 

But what the brunet does next lets Slaine forget about the events of the last three years and be caught in the moment.

Slaine’s breath comes to a halt as Inaho holds his hands out to him. This gesture wouldn’t be very meaningful if it wasn’t for Dariel who sits in her human’s palms and just looks at Slaine with a tilted head. 

He can’t help but shy back from this display, because he knows the meaning of it all. The brunet is literally _offering his heart and soul to him._

Just as touching someone’s dæmon against their will was the worst way to abuse a person’s trust, offering someone to touch their dæmon was the highest symbol of trust a person could give.  
And… it was an action usually shared by _lovers._

His expression becomes shocked when he sees that Inaho really means it, because he doesn’t move and expectantly looks at Slaine instead. Dariel seems to be contempt, too, because she hops a step further towards him. She could have just flown over, but Slaine realises that the two of them leave the decision to make this step to _him._

He carefully reaches out for the raven dæmon but stops halfway again because he still isn’t sure if Inaho knows what he’s doing. But Dariel has already regarded his action as acceptance and – with one flap of her wings – she lands in Slaine’s extended arms.

Slaine stares at her wide-eyed as she nuzzles her head into the palm of his hand. Her feathers are surprisingly soft and smooth and she radiates a wonderful warmth that quickly spreads through Slaine’s body.  
He looks at Inaho, whose expression is shocked and whose intact eye is shining and filled with wonder as he stares at him and Dariel. It is the most emotion that Slaine has ever seen from him, but it might also be the most heart-warming thing he has ever seen in his whole life.  
He can’t take his eyes off the brunet while he absentmindedly cradles Dariel to his chest and gently caresses her feathers. Inaho’s eyes widen in reaction to something this action causes for him. He starts to shiver and Slaine shoves Dariel away hastily and in sorrow that maybe something bad has happened. Inaho visibly tries to retrieve his composure, but fails.  
“That… that… was entirely unexpected” he stutters and Slaine nearly laughs because he has never seen the stoic man like this and it looks hilarious. But the worry outweighs his amusement and he asks what is wrong.  
Dariel, who was startled by Slaines sudden rejection, lands on his hand again before Inaho can answer him. “Continue”, she demands and Slaine is too surprised about hearing her voice for the first time since he met her and simply obeys. 

The contact with Inaho’s soul finally lets him understand the other. He can see everything about him by holding his soul in his palms, and being trusted with a secret like this fills Slaine with pure joy. 

He’s still a little reluctant to let Inaho touch Voyasha, but she wants it, too, and he finally agrees. 

He sees and feels Inaho hug Voyasha, and suddenly he understands the other’s reaction to him touching Dariel. He can’t describe the feeling, but it’s warm and wonderful and he feels smothered by emotion, in a good way. 

He also understands why Inaho seemed so determined to make him continue living: life is wonderful, and he is in love. 

Slaine thinks that he might fall for him, too.

~~~ 3 years later ~~~

The sunset at the ocean is beautiful, and the fact that Inaho is there to watch it with him makes it even better. The air tastes like freedom, and Dariel accompanies Voyasha who plays in the waves that are no longer cold to them.

Inaho kisses him, and Slaine thinks that this moment, this little eternity, will belong to them and only them for the rest of their lifes.

**Author's Note:**

> Some notes about my choice of dæmons: 
> 
> -For Slaine, I came to the conclusion that he would have a dog dæmon. It is noted in His Dark Materials that people with a dog as a dæmon are friendly and loyal, both qualities Slaine definitely possesses. It is also stated that most servants have dog dæmons because they readily obey commands and are, as already stated, loyal to their masters.  
> But then again, I picked the Siberian husky in particular because it is, in addition, considered to be very intelligent. It also possesses more wolf-like traits than most dog breeds and I think that fits Slaine. (A Martian mentioned something about Slaine starting to resemble a wolf in his actions, was it Count Barouhcruz?) Husky’s are adjusted to a very lethal and threatening environment and also have a great endurance. The last reason why I picked a husky is that they are relatively large, and because dæmons are manifestations of a part of one’s soul, I think that Slaine’s dæmon would settle as a large animal that could fight for him and protect him because it would be the defensive and slightly feral part of his soul. 
> 
> -The main reason why I gave Inaho a common raven is, of course, that ravens are among the most intelligent animals on the planet. They look menacing and are considered bringers of bad luck and death, but they actually are very social animals that care for the ones close to them. The latter definitely applies to Inaho. Then again, having a raven dæmon also implies that a person is manipulative and does not always follow the rules. These are also character traits of Inaho; even if he does it for everyone’s wellbeing. And the (trivial) thing that finally convinced me to give Inaho a raven is that the god Odin (do you know which scene I am referring to here?) had two ravens, Hugin and Munin, as messengers and informants. Coincidence? Nope. :3
> 
> I'm very, very tempted to make this a series...


End file.
